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Too often, firefighters cut corners on personal protective equipment (PPE). They skip hoods on brush fires, go without gloves on “minor” incidents, or ride light on extrication calls. It’s uncomfortable, it slows things down, and “we’ve done it this way for years.”
But here’s the unvarnished truth: you don’t get to choose which call tries to kill you.
By Mark Lambert, Director, WVU Fire Service Extension and West Virginia State Fire Training Academy
For decades, the phrase, “Check Your Detector,” has been the cornerstone of fire prevention campaigns. It’s been printed on posters, aired in PSAs and drilled into schoolchildren year after year. And to be fair, it helped to reduce the serious fire death toll of the late 1900s.